LG Nexus phone to release soon?

What to expect from their first attempt to build a smartphone for Google

What to expect from LG's first attempt to build a smartphone for Google

Last week, we featured a rumour about the ‘mini’ Galaxy phone from Samsung. This rumour’s been confirmed. We’re definitely getting a four-inch Galaxy S III tomorrow. While Samsung has its hands full with another top-end phone on its way, its compatriot has caught the attention of Android fans. LG is being touted as the next OEM to make a Nexus phone for Google, and this will be a pure, un-skinned Android.

Just like Samsung worked off their popular Galaxy S and S II phones for their Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus devices respectively, it’s being reported that LG will be building on their recently-announced Optimus G to create the upcoming Nexus phone. The leaked images show a fairly standard looking front, but the back’s where the action’s at (at least while the display is off). Like the Optimus G, which has a glass back panel with tiny indents on it, the Nexus device in the leaked images shows a fairly unique textured back panel, and also possibly glass.

The display of the Optimus G is an IPS LCD measuring 1280 x 768 pixels; this means it has a rather respectable 317.6 PPI. Stocked with a quad-core processor clocked at 1.5 GHz, 2 GB DDR2 RAM and the Adreno 320 GPU from Qualcomm, the Optimus G is a mammoth device, and the LG Nexus should feature much of the same. Unfortunately, there is still no sign of a microSD slot in the LG Nexus phone, and the rumour doesn’t indicate anything to the contrary.

What the rumour does mention is that wireless charging will be available for the phone, and that it should be officially announced at the end of October.

A second rumour concerning Nexus phones is that this might be the first year that Google releases multiple phones under the Nexus moniker, albeit co-named by their respective OEMs. The benefit to Google is that its partners don’t feel the company’s favouring any one OEM; the benefit to consumers is that we get five phones that look different, but act just the way we want them to – like pure Android devices.